WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- Not everyone who is assigned to the 445th Airlift Wing is from around here. Traditional reservists and new Air Reserve Technicians come from across the country. Some may have never stepped foot in the state of Ohio until they were assigned here. Those who are new to the wing, especially if they are by themselves, need a wingman right off the bat.
Tech. Sgt. Marcela Itah, 89th Airlift Squadron aviation resource management (SARM) technician, knows the importance of having a wingman and shares her story of why.
“It's important to know your people. When asked if I wanted to share my story, if my story helps in any way, I want it to be that. I hope that anyone would have done the same. I just think there is something special to be learned from my experiences.”
The weekend before the October unit training assembly, Itah was spending time with a civilian friend who lives in Columbus, Ohio, a friend she’s know from her teenage years back in Florida. Coincidently, they both ended up in Ohio.
The friend informed her that she had met someone who was in the Air Force and that she might know him. After seeing a picture of him, that was not the case. Itah asked what he did for the Air Force but the only thing the friend knew about him was that he was a part timer. With a smile and a chuckle, Itah explained, “She knows nothing about the military, at all.”
After returning home from her visit, one night her friend sent her some text messages, Itah didn't think to respond right away. Her friend followed up with a phone call. She asked if Itah had seen the messages she had sent her. She had sent her a screenshot of a social media post the guy had recently posted.
His post, in summary, stated that he realized that no one would read his suicide letter. How none of his (social media) friends would ever read his post anyways because he doesn't have any true friends. He continued on about his life and how lonely he feels. How he spends every weekend by himself, and doesn't get invited out for his birthday or any holidays. While reading this Itah felt, “Oh my God, my heart immediately went out to him. I get it, I'm here (in Ohio) by myself.”
Itah explained, “I feel it was a God given thing because when I saw that message I could relate to what he felt, that loneliness. I know what it is to be in a place where you don't have family, and you just rely on your unit and friends.”
Her friend asked, “What do we do?” She didn't know him enough yet to have his address. “How do I get the police to go to his house if I don't even know where he lives,” her friend asked. All they had was his first and last name.
Itah contacted the 445th Security Forces Squadron from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
“Maybe they could look him up in the global, they can find his unit and reach out to his first shirt,” Itah said. Her husband is a security forces member so she does have a little knowledge on the chain of events if something like this happens. Itah explained to the security forces Airman on the phone the events that had unfolded thus far. He called back and they felt confident that the individual was not a part of the 445th Airlift Wing.
The security forces Airman passed the information onto the 445th AW first sergeant, Master Sgt. Rebecca Stammen. Shortly after, Itah received a call from Stammen. After confirming all the info that was passed to her, Stammen asked if she knew if he was an officer or enlisted. Her friend had no idea. Itah had the idea to scour his social media for a picture of him in uniform. After a lot of scrolling her friend came across a photo from a few years back of him in ABUs (Airman Battle Uniform). Though they couldn't tell his exact rank, they could tell he was enlisted. After some more vigorous detective work, they found him on Facebook and determined, time frame wise, he had to be a technical sergeant or above. Using the global email, that allowed them to narrow him down to two people, both of which were not a part of the 445th Airlift Wing.
Itah said that from there, it was a trail of texts between her, her friend, the 445th first sergeant and the 88th Air Base Wing first sergeant, trying to locate and piece the whole thing together. Stammen and Itah both came to the conclusion of what unit he had to be with. Stammen had a contact there and reached out to the unit. Stammen then informed them that they had found his information and had called the authorities.
While this was going on, Itah and her friend were continuously calling the Airman; trying to reach him anyway possible. Itah alerted the Columbus police department of the situation. They didn’t know his address but they gave their best guess to what area he lived in.
“I thought, that way they could cut down response time. By this time it had been about an hour since his post,” Itah said.
Not even 10 minutes after talking to the Columbus police department, they received a call back from dispatch letting them know that they had found him and that he was on his way to the hospital.
“We were so relieved to hear that he was on the way to the hospital and that he wasn’t going to be alone.”
They knew he had pets and that someone needed to look after them. Using the individual's unit webpage, Itah was able to find the director of psychological health’s phone number. The director thanked her and her friend and confirmed that they did the right thing. She also informed them that he was safe and that was partly because of them.
“In the moment, you realize you did something good,” Itah said. “At the time, I didn't think I did anything out of the norm. I feel like anyone here would do that.”
After getting the information, her friend ended up spending the day with him at the hospital. On Oct. 2, Itah was going to meet him that night.
“I want to let him know he's not alone and that he has another friend here. Even if I leave Ohio, I would still want to stay in contact with him.”
Itah added, “My first year here the only person I knew in Ohio was my friend from Columbus. On my first Christmas here, my boss here invited me over. The next year, someone else did. Now I have my husband and we spend holidays together, but there was that time that I didn't. I always got invited to go somewhere whether through people at work, or people I had met through them, I have essentially created an extended family.”
Itah also added, “It is something to be aware of that most of the people we work with here, live with people or are from here, but not everyone is. There are people here that are not from here, it's just not as common as it is in the active duty world. We become a little calloused to seeing that, we assume everyone has a place to go.”
Itah and her friend would like to thank everyone involved.